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PY´THIUM

PY´THIUM (Πύθιον), a town of Perrhaebia in Thessaly, situated at the foot of Mount Olympus, and forming a Tripolis with the two neighbouring towns of Azorus and Doliche. Pythium derived its name from a temple of Apollo Pythius situated on one of the summits of Olympus, as we learn from an [p. 2.689]epigram of Xeinagoras, a Greek mathematician, who measured the height of Olympus from these parts (ap. Plut. Aem. 15). Games, were also celebrated here in honour of Apollo. (Steph. B. sub voceΠύθιον.) Pythium commanded an important pass across Mount Olympus.
This pass and that of Tempe are the only two leading from Macedonia into the north-east of Thessaly. Leake therefore places Pythium on the angle of the plain between Kokkinopló and Livádhi, though no remains of the ancient town have been discovered there. (Liv. 42.53; Plut., Steph. B. sub vocell. cc.; Ptol. 3.13; § 42; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 341, seq.)